And the resulting 1964 wordmark…

“The idea of the red O came about partly to reinforce a design concept to use circular canopies, pumps, and display elements for a distinctive and attractive look. It also served to help people pronounce the name correctly (Mo-bil, not Mo-bile), and of course to add a single memorable and distinctive element to an otherwise very simple lettering style.”

Images/excerpt from Chermayeff & Geismar‘s superb new book, Identify, published by Print Publishing.

You might also like:
An interview with Tom Geismar
An interview with Sagi Haviv

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The inspiration came from Chi-Chi: a giant panda that had arrived at the London Zoo in the year 1961, when WWF was being created.

Aware of the need for a strong, recognisable symbol that would overcome all language barriers, WWF’s founders agreed that the big, furry animal with her appealing, black-patched eyes would make an excellent logo.

British environmentalist and artist Gerald Watterson played a key role in the original panda logo by producing the initial sketches.

Based on these, Sir Peter Scott, one of the organisation’s founders, drew the first logo, and said at the time:

“We wanted an animal that is beautiful, is endangered, and one loved by many people in the world for its appealing qualities. We also wanted an animal that had an impact in black and white to save money on printing costs.”

The strongest design improvement came in 1986 when the viewer was left to fill in the gaps in order to complete the symbol.

—

Update: 09 June 2011
Jerry Kuyper added this comment to the thread below:

The firm responsible for the 1986 work was the San Francisco office of Landor. Tom Suiter was the creative director, I was the design director and Jenny Leibundgut was the primary designer.

Prior to our work WWF was using two different pandas, one in the USA (a colder, more geometric version of the 1978 version) and one for the rest of the world.

As I remember, our working attributes were:
- not too cuddly
- not too ferocious
- and most certainly, not about to go extinct

We looked at a dozen ways to add details to the eyes before realizing the obvious — the solid black shapes were the most engaging and open to interpretation.

It is very gratifying to see that the mark has lasted 25 years without the addition of any swooshes, glows or reflections.

—

The black-and-white panda has since come to stand as a symbol for the conservation movement as a whole.

Watch Pentagram partner Angus Hyland talking about the WWF logo (and Penguin’s) in the embedded video below, from a recent talk in London’s Design Museum.

References:
WWF in the 60′s
What is the Panda’s evolutionary history?
WWF

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1976. Ink and tape on paper envelope, 2 7/8 x 3 5/8″ (7.3 x 9.2 cm), Museum of Modern Art, NYC.

Found on MoMA, via this 30-minute BBC production for Radio 4.

Milton Glaser elsewhere:
Interview talking about the classic logo, on logodesignlove.com
Thoughts on design studios, on davidairey.com
Six minute video: Art is Work, on davidairey.com
Biographical info and links, on logosdesigners.com

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Obama’s healthcare logo making news for no apparent reason (via @chadengle).

RT @pentagramdesign New Work: Chicken Now: new identity for fast food restaurant.

“Own Energy” identity design (by @MartinBoath).

[video] Google Chrome logo recreated with LEGO (via @downwithdesign).

Do you know your brand alphabet?

The revised Pepsi vs Coca-Cola identity timeline.

Interview with Rob Janoff, designer of the Apple logo (via @ucllc).

E. Tautz identity (by @movingbrands).

300+ Google logos (via @DesignerDepot).

A little off-topic, but I’ve stopped using tr.im as my URL shortener of choice, preferring bit.ly. The former was (is?) having some site overload issues, rendering every tr.im link unusable (or very slow to load). Both services offer statistics, but after a week of using bit.ly, I think I prefer theirs.

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A quick mention of a favourite blog, Logolog by Denis Radenkovic, and a great logo by Nancy Wu, for Tenth.

Nancy is a very talented designer who has kindly agreed to contribute to the upcoming Logo Design Love book, so you’ll have the pleasure of seeing more of her process explained.

The Vancouver-based designer’s website, Nancy Wu Design, was worth my time — the “identity” section in particular — and here’s a small sample of Nancy’s preliminary work for the Tenth logo (more to follow in the book, with some intriguing unused concepts).

I previously asked if you knew of any good church logos, and the discussion that ensued was quite deep, with strong opinions being voiced.

Denis, I applaud your design taste. Please do keep up the good work.

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I’ve learned from quite a few mistakes during my time as a designer, and to save you from doing likewise, here are 10 logo design tips I picked up.

1. A logo doesn’t need to say what a company does


Restaurant logos don’t need to show food, dentist logos don’t need to show teeth, furniture store logos don’t need to show furniture. Just because it’s relevant, doesn’t mean you can’t do better.

The Mercedes logo isn’t a car. The Virgin Atlantic logo isn’t an aeroplane. The Apple logo isn’t a computer. Etc. Etc.

2. Not every logo needs a symbol


Sometimes a client just needs a professional wordmark to identify their business. Don’t be afraid to ask what they think.

3. Two-way process


Remember, things might not always pan out as you hope. Your client might request something you disagree with. If that happens, try giving them what they want, then show them what you believe is an improvement, and why. They’re less likely to be so resistant if they already see how their thoughts pan out.

4. Picasso started somewhere


You don’t need to be an artist to realise the benefits of logo sketching. Ideas can flow much faster between a pen and paper than they can a mouse and monitor.

5. Under-promise, over-deliver


If you’re unsure how long a task will take to complete, estimate longer. Design projects are like construction work — you piece lots of little elements together to form a greater whole, and setbacks can crop up at any time.

6. Leave trends to the fashion industry


Trends come and go, and when you’re talking about changing a pair of jeans, or buying a new dress, that’s fine, but where your brand identity is concerned, longevity is key.



Don’t follow the pack.


Stand out.

7. Work in black first
By leaving colour to the end of the process, you focus on the idea. No amount of gradient or colour will rescue a poorly designed mark.

8. Keep it appropriate


Designing for a lawyer? Ditch the fun approach. Designing for a kid’s TV show? Nothing too serious. I could go on, but you get the picture.

9. A simple logo aids recognition


Keeping the design simple allows for flexibility in size. Ideally, your design should work at a minimum of around one inch without loss of detail. Look at the logos of large corporations like Mitsubishi, Samsung, FedEx, BBC etc. Their logos look simple and are easier to recognise because of it.

10. One thing to remember


That’s it. Leave your client with just one thing to remember about the design. All strong logos have one single feature to help them stand out.



Not two, three, or four.



One.

More logo design tips

This is just a snippet of what has followed in the Logo Design Love book. Plenty more in there (with a free chapter here).

Do you have any additional tips to share? Have you had a problem in a project that was eventually overcome (or not)? I’d love to know.

I love New York image courtesy of Oded Ezer

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If you haven’t heard about Airplot, Greenpeace have bought a piece of land slap bang in the middle of the proposed third runway site at Heathrow. The aim of the purchase is to prevent the runway being built.

The government plans to go ahead with the airport expansion even though this means the UK will have “no hope of meeting its climate emission targets” (source: Greenpeace). At full capacity, Heathrow would become the largest single source of greenhouse gas emissions in the country.

Not only do I support the Airplot cause, but I thought this a good opportunity to look at the creation of its logo, designed by Airside, a London-based design agency.

Regardless of scalability issues, I chose to feature the logo due to the design process, and I love how Airside go into depth on their blog (showing plenty of logo sketches).

“As the project continued the idea of using type as a constructive device became the favoured route, however the design team were concerned that the concept of ideographic type would be hard to explain.”

“After culling the directions considered unsuccessful, we approached Greenpeace with the above idea. From our point of view it was important to communicate how fields could be abstracted into an underlying grid.

This point was crucial as it would allow us to use the field metaphor, but through a much more manageable form. To explain this point we presented the 4 sequential images featured in the above presentation to hammer the point home.”

“Acknowledging that land was central to Greenpeace’s protest, Airside created an identity based on the colours and shapes synonymous with the rural fields Airplot seeked to occupy.”

Airside published two logo development blog posts — the first shows how the design is being adapted for different campaign messages, and the second includes logo sketches and cardboard type cutouts. It’s interesting to read the accompanying commentary:

• New Work: Greenpeace Presents Airplot
• Process: Greenpeace Presents Airplot

What do you think of the logo?

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Alex talks about the stories behind Holywood studio logos, on Neatorama. Thanks, Vivek.

Judging by these HERSHEY’S chocolate wrappers — dating back some 100 years — there’s an awful lot of brand recognition in the all-caps logo. Via Armin, at Quipsologies.

100 brands of interest — a collection of logos from graphic designers / design agencies.

David, of September Industry, is appreciating the RAC identity, created in 1997 by North.

A couple of photos from the launch party of Pentagram’s new book, Pentagram Marks: 400 Symbols and Logos.

James White, of Signalnoise.com, has pieced together a Canadian logo collection from The Canadian Design Resource. Via ISO50.

Denis Radenkovic, of Logolog, gives us a look at Maggie Macnab’s design projects, and you can find many more in her excellent logo book, Decoding Design.

Brand New’s best and worst of 2008. Armin rounds off the year with his choice picks from the fantastic Brand New blog.

I hope you all have a fantastic new year, and thanks very much for reading!

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The new Toronto Blue Jays logo isn’t going down too well, and I agree with Jakub’s critique.

If it were up to me, I’d have definitely altered some elements of the original, such as the stitching of the baseball, but the maple leaf and colour red would’ve been kept. Then again, I’m neither Canadian, nor a fan of baseball.

This angry logo round-up is worth a read. From Ben Terrett.

How automobile logos define a brand, on Design Week.

MarnieB brings us 30 animal logos. My favourite has to be Duck Fart. It’s that little lean to the side that really makes it.

The Dark Lord of Logos — a brief interview with Christophe Szpajdel, a black-metal logo designer.

Brian Hoff, of Design Cubicle, shares his personal logo design process. Nice insight, Brian.

Jacob Cass and Jeff Fisher collaborate for the launch of Logo of the Day, a daily logo gallery with “best of the month” awards.

For more daily logo design inspiration, have a look at Logo From Dreams, Logo Faves, or FaveUp.

Jakub of ISO50 talks about this beauty of a logo (Logitech), another from the design fail series.

Many of these articles are mentioned on Twitter soon after I see them — yet before I have time to publish them on Logo Design Love. If Twitter’s your thing, you can follow me here.

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Creative Review have a rebranded with a beautiful 3D marque called the MaRble. For some thought-provoking rationale — including the following pearl of wisdom — read the full explanation on CR Blog.

“The word ‘infonauts’ is an invented one, stumbled upon in our brainstorming sessions through the expression of our core values of being an “information” provider for the creative industries boldly going to the outer limits of the new frontiers of media distribution networks in a web 2.0 world.”

Just what I was thinking.

This 3D paper homage to Milton Glaser‘s I Love New York logo is worth a butchers. Via DesignNotes.

Dirk Leys offers a nice overview of his logo design process. Thanks for the email, Dirk.

Simon Nielsen recently brought his similarly-named portfolio website — logolove.dk — to my attention. Good luck with everything, Simon.

Have you ever heard a design client say, “I could have done that in five minutes”? Steve Douglas wrote an article on The Logo Factor that digs a little deeper:

“…I suppose they’re kinda right. Some logos could be rendered (an important distinction) in a couple of minutes. If we knew exactly what the client wanted. If we were able to nail a concept down in our first attempt. If the client approved said design on first blush. And if that logo consisted of basic elements — a few shapes and some typography.”

Tina Roth Eisenberg of the renowned swissmiss has updated her logo. I like it a lot.

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